The Office of Naval Research has declared that it is looking forward to develop the Autonomous Critical Care System (ACCS), a medical robot archetype. The primary task of ACCS would be inspecting the vital signs of crucial patients. Gradually, it would be used to supply fluid, medicines, anesthesia, oxygen, suction and also to normalize the temperature of a patient.
The Navy predicts that its medical robot could identify and manage several complicated and acute clinical incidents continuously for over six hours. It would work either automatically or with the help of the instructions from a medical worker. To carry out these functions, the ACCS would incorporate its own medical kit that includes epinephrine, dopamine, phenylephrine paralytics and vasopressin.
Recently, Darpa partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate several areas such as ‘computerized therapist personalities’ and ‘robotic applications to surgery’. The ACCS robot will be very small, weighing 30 pounds and could be easily fitted in helicopters.
The Office of Naval Research is also looking forward to develop an unmanned flying ambulance. It would be used to carry injured warriors or calamity victims and the ACCS will monitor and control the patients during transportation.
For the past few years, Israel has been researching on developing a robotic ambulance. Goods-carrying drones have already been developed in this nation. The K-MAX helicopter drone can transfer 6,000 pounds of cargo and a terrestrial drone, named as BigDog, can pull up to 300 pounds.
The Air Force and Marine Corps are working to develop their own flying drones for carrying cargo. The Navy is looking forward to develop software that would enable the cargo-carrying robots to ship the injured victims by voice prompt, without the support of pilots.
Source: http://www.defense.gov